TULSA, Okla. — To commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month 2 News Oklahoma is highlighting an Oklahoma State University student who hopes to improve the low representation of Hispanic and Latinx vets.
Veterinarians are important to an animal’s health, but having a vet who looks like you and speaks your language can help remove barriers to access care.
Catalina Perez is a first-year doctorate student at Oklahoma State University studying to become a veterinarian. She chose the field because of her passion and love for animals, people and community service.
“I thought there’s no better job than vet med to combine all three by building those client relationships, taking care of their pets, and then educating them on public health,” Perez said.
In school, she’s done events like Operation Catnip, where they trap stray cats to spay and neuter and then release them, as well as fun events like kitten yoga.
Although, there’s one slideshow in class that stuck out to her this semester.
“I saw the little Hispanic one talking about only 6% of DVM’s (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine) are Hispanic, and I was kind of shocked to see it. I definitely wasn’t expecting that,” she explained.
Perez said she knew vet medicine wasn’t a diverse field, but she didn’t understand just how low it is until now.
The president of the Latinx Veterinary Medical Association, Acacia Roman, backs up that statistic.
“It has been very low historically,” she shared.
Roman said it’s low because of the lack of mentorship and how this community views pets in the household.
“Growing up, I definitely had outside pets, and we definitely didn’t give them the care that I would be able to offer my pets today,” Perez said.
But those views are changing in her family, and as Roman said, they are changing in many Hispanic and Latinx families. Roman added enrollment of Hispanic and Latinx students in vet school is up to 20%.
“By having Hispanic representation in veterinary medicine, not only veterinarians but also the support staff, it opens that line of communication, and it removes a barrier for pet health," Roman said.
She also said having more people of this ethnicity in the industry will help the pets.
“I see a future of more pets and pet parents coming to the veterinarian for preventative care more than the 'please save my dog now that it’s sick,'" she explained.
Both Roman and Perez agree the best way to continue to improve the number of Hispanic and Latinx people going into vet medicine is to start by exposing kids to animals and the industry at a young age.
“I want to be able to inspire other kids who look like me," Perez shared. "I want to be there for them, offering them guidance.”
The Latinx Veterinary Medical Association presidents said their organization starts outreach to kids in elementary school by bringing animals around them. With kids in middle and high school, they start to share what it means to be a vet and the schooling it takes to become one.
Beyond inspiring others to join the field, Perez has her own goals going into the field.
“What I want to accomplish after this is being that representation and inspiration and being able to help those Spanish speaking clients with my bilingual abilities to help them understand what’s going on and really informing them on vaccines, public health, zoonotic diseases and all kinds of information,” she said.
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